Sign In
Upcoming Event
Free Newsletter
Mercy’s new tower will feature rooftop gardens
Mercy’s new tower will feature rooftop gardens
Listen to this article
When the new 18-story Mary Catherine Bunting Center opens at Mercy Medical Center this month, the state-of-the-art hospital tower will unveil an unlikely visual for an urban hospital: a series of rooftop gardens.
The gardens will stretch across the 8th, 9th and 10th-floor rooftops and will cover half of the surface. Baltimore-based landscape architectural and urban design firm Mahan Rykiel Associates designed the highly-placed gardens as well as the streetscape. Rykiel worked with the center’s lead architectural group, Ellerbe Becket, on designs for the rooftop gardens.
Mercy officials say the roof gardens will provide a peaceful respite for patients and their families, as well as staff, at the more than $400 million brick, glass and metal structure. The gardens will feature native plantings and recycled materials, and the green roofs will help to maintain environmental sustainability.
“I refer to it as a spiritual oasis,” said Dr. Kathy Helzlsouer, of Mercy Medical Center. “You just need a break and nice environment.”
Mahan Rykiel Associates has been designing therapeutic, restorative gardens in healing and health care facilities for nearly 30 years. Other gardens by the firm are blooming (or going dormant at this point in the season) at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in east Baltimore, INOVA Hospital in Virginia and St. Luke’s Hospital in Pennsylvania.
The official opening of the new Bunting tower is Dec. 19.
